Perhaps most pervasive, though, are companies that offer corporate well-being or workplace wellness programmes, promoting goals such as weight loss, quitting smoking and stress reduction. In the US, around half of firms with 50 or more staff offer schemes.

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It sounds like a good idea. But are wellness programmes as useful as they claim to be? A body of research points to unexpected side effects and impacts that don’t always match expectations. For starters, there is evidence suggesting that paying attention to your happiness, a crucial part of well-being, can actually make you less happy.

In one study, two groups watched a video that usually makes people happy – a figure skater winning a prize. Then they filled in questionnaires to assess happiness. The only difference was that before viewing the video, one group read a statement emphasising the importance of happiness and the other did not. Those who didn’t read the statement were more happy after the video. Consciously focusing on our happiness can backfire.

An obsessive focus on wellness can make us more judgemental too, potentially widening societal divisions. Those who highly value well-being tend to view those who don’t come up to their high standards as “disgusting”. Moral psychology research has found that when feelings of disgust are triggered, we tend to rapidly make punitive moral judgements. For example, we are more likely to harshly judge people who “turn our stomach” and ascribe morally unattractive traits to them, such as being lazy and untrustworthy.

And while programmes in the workplace promise a lot, results can be a let-down. Some studies have found wellness initiatives only helped a small number of employees lose on average half a kilogram over a year. While any weight loss isn’t to be sniffed at, are such results worth the billions spent achieving them?

It is hard to argue against a healthy diet, regular exercise, not smoking, and drinking in moderation. However, wellness can become a problem and deserves greater scrutiny when it is an unceasing command people feel they must live up to. When this happens, it can undermine the very thing it tries to promote.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Under the whip of wellness”

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André Spicer is a professor at Cass Business School, London, and Carl Cederström is at Stockholm University, Sweden. Their new book is The Wellness Syndrome (Polity)